Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
publicinfo@selu.edu
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: 10/29/99
Contact: Christina Chapple 1
SOUTHEASTERN TO OFFER "LEARNING COMMUNITIES" IN SPRING 2000
HAMMOND -- When Southeastern Louisiana University students sit down at computer
terminals on and off campus to register for the spring 2000 semester Nov. 8-12, they will find
some innovative and exciting new courses among the long list of classes from which they can choose
to enroll.
Just in time for the new millennium and its 75th anniversary, the university will begin
offering "learning communities," two or three courses linked through shared themes, writing
assignments and activities.
Jeff Weimelt, a member of the English faculty and coordinator of the campus' learning
community initiative, said in learning community classes students benefit from increased
opportunities to integrate the material they are learning across classrooms and to interact more
with one another as active collaborates in the work they share.
Eight learning community course offerings are planned for spring 2000. The courses focus on
undergraduates, and many are targeted to specific groups, such as beginning freshmen, education
majors and criminal justice majors.
The Learning Community initiative is an outgrowth of the Southeastern Center for Faculty
Excellence's first Summer Institute for Teaching and Professional Development (ITPD), a forum
for engaging faculty in discussion, planning and execution of innovations in teaching and
professional development.
The 1999 ITPD participants, Weimelt said, chose to focus on learning communities and
sponsored two four-day summer development workshops to study the philosophy and goals of
learning communities and to design and develop course offerings.
"Spring 2000 promises to be a time of great progress and renewal at Southeastern," Weimelt
said. "A new millennium arrives, the university is celebrating its 75th anniversary and new
buildings are rising all around the university." ITPD participants, he said, "decided to dedicate the
inaugural spring 2000 learning communities to exploring the theme, "'Building Communities.'"
LC#7: Unifying Theory, Process and Application, for instance, will pair social work professor
(MORE)
LEARNING COMMUNITIES Add One
Alan Kirk's "Introduction to Social Satistics" with math professor David Guerney's "Elementary
Statistics" with a focus on social science students' need to be able to read, understand, apply and
communicate statistical concepts and procedures.
Other courses, such as "LC#3: Learning is Social," created by social work professor Peggy
Pittman-Munke, English professor Sarah Ross and library science professor Bonnie Bess Wood,
will incorporate service learning activities. In LC#3, social work students will connect learning about
a social work career with writing and research. The course work encompasses Social Work 101
(Introduction to Social Work), English 102-A (Freshman Composition), and Library Science 102
(Introductory Research Skills) and will involve students in research projects through
Southeastern's Florida Parishes Social Sciences Research Center.
Other LC courses include:
LC#1: Learning Together for Success: Freshman Seminar 101 (Patti Steib) and
English 101 (Freshman Composition George Dorrill).
LC#2: Foundations for a Just Society: Criminal Justice 101 (Introduction to Criminal
Justice S.E. Costanza), English 102A (Freshman Composition Wade Heaton), Library Science
102 (Introductory Basic Skills Stephen A. Sanders).
LC#4: Success Through Involvement: Speech, Language and Hearing 101
(Introduction to Speech, Language and Hearing Jean Mead), English 102A (Freshman
Compositions Annabel Servat).
LC#5: Awareness, Image and Action: Health Studies 132 (Personal Health Sallye
Raymond), English 101 (Freshman Composition Jana Schulman), Library Science 102
(Introductory Research Skills Stephen A. Sanders).
LC#6: Creating a Discourse Community for Teacher Educators: Communications 211
(Introduction to Public Speaking Terri Miller-Drufner), English 102A (Freshman Composition
Ron Harris).
LC#7: Embracing Our Common Exceptionalities in Learning, Teaching and Writing:
special Education 200 (Characteristics of Exceptional Children Carol Torrey), English 102A
(Freshman Composition Jeff Wiemelt).
Students can get more details about the Learning Communities courses from their advisors or
one of the participating Learning Community teachers, or from Wiemelt at 504-549-5761 or
jwiemelt@selu.edu.
- SLU -
This press release is available on the World Wide Web:
www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsf99.htm